Last week I accompanied Owen to the Linbury Studio Theatre - aka the basement of the Royal Opera House - to see a group he has been raving about since the end of last year called Rachel Unthank and The Winterset. Now I must admit that name put me off, it sounds like something falling down a flight of stairs. Added to that it was a folk quartet of four women - the two Unthank sisters, a tall, stern violinist/accordionist and a blonde pianist... and all sung in a Geordie dialect. Constant Reader.... you can just imagine my heavy heart can't you?

My first impression when they walked on was "Chanel that you should be alive at this hour". I mean to say... when you are playing Up West you would think they would frock up a bit and not just wear something you are comfortable in? My ears also clanged shut when the younger Unthank sister Becky started standing on one leg while singing - conjuring up the worst excesses of Jethro Tull - and also singing in a voice that to me sounded like a more breathy version of Dolores O'Riordan from The Cranberries. Not a singer whose vocal chords are on my Christmas Card list.
So imagine my own surprise when I found myself not falling asleep! Now don't worry... I'm not going to go all Nuts In May on you, singing about innumerable maids "who went out one day a-walking" and getting up the stick by some heartless soldier boy etc etc. but I remained engaged through their set, mostly due to their down-to-earth personalities.

I must say the songs themselves seemed to be a bit interminable - maybe it's just because I had never heard them before but they did seem to always launch into yet ANOTHER verse just as I was about to start clapping. There were a couple of nice ones that I remembered hearing Owen playing but more often than not I tuned out and enjoyed listening to the deeply textured harmonies the four voices made.

The backing of a piano and violin lent most of the songs a moody, introspective air which was intriguing and there was the occasional strange quirk - Steph the pianist plucking the piano wires like a harp or Becky Unthank clicking out a heel-toe rhythm for a song - to give them an individual sound. In truth there weren't too may 'up' songs but one afforded the two sisters to do a clog dance in the middle of it and that was fun.

It was obviously an important gig for them as Steph the pianist is leaving soon to do a phd - it's that sort of a group - so there was a definite 'end of an era' feel to the show and towards the end she was presented with flowers from the band and from the audience too so there was nary a dry eye in the stalls or on the stage.

So all in all, not a gig I would have seen ordinarily but one that I was engaged by and that afforded me an hour or so to drift off on interwoven harmonies.